Application of the reduced mechanism method to determine the law of motion of a planar mechanism with multiple degrees of freedom
This paper shows a method to determine unknown angular accelerations of driving members of a planar mechanism with multiple degrees of freedom via partial mechanism reduction, assuming that driving loads are known for those driving members. Besides the partial reduction of mechanism, here we use the analysis of primary and secondary accelerations, as well as the principle of virtual displacements (virtual work). Using this method, a set of decoupled equations is obtained, which is an advantage when compared to classical methods, such as an application of generalized laws of dynamics, which result in a set of equations that are coupled. As an illustration of how to use the described method, an example is shown.